Feb. 16, 2013

Coast Guard Petty Officer 1st Class James Hopkins of Vergennes, Vt., far left, and Richard Belisle, lower right, are joined by other unidentified workers as they help erect a communications antenna on Shemya Island, Alaska, in June 2011. Federal prosecutors say James Michael Wells, a Kodiak man, has been arrested in last year’s shooting deaths of Hopkins and Belisle, and was a co-worker of the victims. / AP

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Associated Press

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — An Alaska man has been arrested in last year’s shooting deaths at a Coast Guard communications station on Kodiak Island that left two employees dead, one of whom was a former Vermont resident, the U.S. attorney said.

James Michael Wells, 61, of Kodiak is accused in a federal murder complaint of killing Petty Officer 1st Class James Hopkins and retired Chief Boatswain’s Mate Richard Belisle on April 12, 2012.

The arrested man worked with the victims, a Coast Guard spokeswoman confirmed.

“At the time of the incident, Jim Wells was actively employed as a civilian Coast Guard employee at the communications station,” Coast Guard spokeswoman Sara Francis said from Kodiak late Friday, when the arrest was announced. She said she didn’t know his current employment status.

Francis referred all other questions about the case to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which issued a three-paragraph statement announcing the arrest but providing little information about what led the authorities to Wells.

Kevin Feldis, chief of the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Anchorage, told the Burlington Free Press on Saturday afternoon that no documents in the case were public, nor was any motion to seal the case or any finding by a judge to do so.

Feldis said some information might be made available when federal court reopens Tuesday after the Presidents Day weekend.

“I am not aware of anything public related to his case,” the prosecutor wrote in an email to the Free Press.

Wells is expected to appear in court the week of Feb. 17 in Anchorage. Jail records show he is in custody at the Anchorage Jail.

Wells’ wife said Saturday her husband is innocent.

Nancy Wells told The Associated Press that she expects her husband “will be fully exonerated.” She said she has “full faith” in her husband’s innocence, and “no faith in the quality of the investigation.”

Hopkins, 41, was an electronics technician from Vergennes.

Belisle, 51, was a former chief petty officer who continued service to the Coast Guard as a civilian employee.

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Another Coast Guard member found the victims shortly after the two would have arrived for work at the station, which monitors radio traffic from ships and planes. Their bodies were found in the rigger building, where antennas are repaired.

The Kodiak Island Coast Guard base is home to cutters, helicopters and rescue swimmers that aid mariners in the Bering Sea and Pacific Ocean.

FBI agents immediately flew to Kodiak Island from Anchorage, about 250 miles away, to investigate the case as a double homicide.

Few details were released in the weeks after the deaths, although FBI spokesman Eric Gonzalez in Anchorage said shortly after the murders that there was “no credible evidence” that the community was in danger.

Wells’ arrest came after “an extensive investigation” led by the FBI and the Coast Guard Investigative Service, with support from the Alaska State Troopers, U.S. Attorney Karen Loeffler said in a statement.

Gonzalez declined to discuss specifics of the case Friday evening, saying the complaint and underlying affidavit are under court seal. He said he expected those documents to be unsealed in the coming week.

The FBI spokesman declined to comment on a possible motive, what led investigators to focus on Wells or whether any other arrests were expected.

“I just can’t comment on anything about this case,” he said.

About a week after the killings, the FBI asked for help from the public in identifying two vehicles: a white 2002 Dodge Ram pickup and a blue 2001 Honda CRV. The next month, the FBI released a statement saying agents wanted to talk to anyone in Alaska who had sold or otherwise transferred a Smith and Wesson Model 29 or Model 629 or any .44-caliber model of a magnum Taurus.

Kodiak residents told the AP in later interviews that a co-worker of Belisle and Hopkins owned a blue Honda CRV and a white Dodge pickup.

In their jobs with the Coast Guard, Belisle and Hopkins were involved with the installation, maintenance, repair and management of electronic equipment.

Some 60 enlisted personnel and civilians work at the base’s communications station. That’s a small fraction of the estimated 4,000 Guardsmen, families and civilian employees at the Kodiak Island base, the service’s largest in the nation.